It was a 0400 hours aboard the UNSC Ask and Ye Shall Receive, a UNSC Prowler under the command of ONI section 7. The faint hum of the engines was the first thing Antares heard as he came out of Cryo. It was always the first thing he heard, even before the strange hissing noise that the cryo pod made when it opened up. Antares blinked his eyes to re-adjust to the dim lighting in the cryo bay, it seemed like the lights were flickering but he couldn't tell, that might just be the after effects of what felt like a year in cryosleep. Antares looked around as the other 5 cryo pods slowly opened, making that same hissing noise as each member of the squad slowly gained consciousness. There were nine of them at one point, but Stephen... Pollux... had been forced to stay behind due to injuries he received during their last op.
That mission had been just one nightmare after another. First Hamal's pod had malfunctioned and exploded before they even hit orbit, and then Al Tarf was killed when he was stuck by one of the covvie's plasma grenades. His last words had been "How do they keep them from sticking to their own hands?" before he rather unceremoniously exploded. "We killed every last Covvie there for that one." Antares muttered before cracking his neck; he was always sore after a long cryosleep, He walked over to his locker while the others were still waking up and put on his undergarments and black body suit. Antares didn't think they'd have to be suited up immediately. After all, no one had been there when they woke up screaming at them to get their asses in gear. "Good thing too or I probably would have snapped whoever it was in half," he chuckled to himself. He had a habit of doing that after getting out of cryo. His only explanation was that the rest of the squad had nothing resembling conversational skills for at least 15 minutes once they came out of cryo sleep. Antares heard what sounded like a cough and looked over. It was Antoin coughing, "Hey Sada, you sick?" Antares called over to him. Antoin looked over at him and grunted out in between yawns "Bro, do you have to use the code names when we're off duty?" "But we're not off duty. If we were then we'd still be in those lovely pods" chimed in Zach (Codename: Alde). "Everyone shut up, it's too early in the morning for me to have to listen to you idiots arguing" hissed Chris (Codename: Denal). "Aw come on Uncle Chris, you know you love us" It was Gabriel (Codename: Spica), the youngest member of the squad who interjected that flowery remark; Chris just glared and went to his locker, pulling a pack of cigarettes out before walking into the hallway for a smoke. You could hardly blame the guy for being a bit testy. He and Hamal had been close.
Just then James (Codename:KAs), the squadleader yawned and asked, to no one in particular, "So, where's the CO, or couldn't he be bothered to wake us in person?" When no one answered James announced, "Well then if no one has any ideas I'm going to get back to my nice comfy cr-" before being cut off by the voice of Captain Verten. "Sorry for the early wake up Spartans, but we just received a top priority mission that requires our immediate attention, suit up and meet me in the briefing room on deck 16, Verten out. "Well you heard the man, suit up," said James in a rather lax tone before adding "That means you too Chris."
In almost no time at all the six Spartan III's were all geared up. It wasn't the standard SPI armor most of the S3's received, but Mjolnir mark V armor with varying modifications they were part of the special Section 7 Iniative, a special test program where a select few squads of S3's received the Mjolnir powered armor usually reserved for the more expensive Spartan II's.
Once they were all assembled, they quickly walked to the lift and went to the sixteenth floor. Captain Verten was waiting outside the briefing room and ushered them inside as soon as they arrived. "Spartans" Verten sighed, "yesterday, at 02200 we received classified orders from ONI section 7. They have discovered a forerunner artifact on the planet we've identified as Eden Minor. We've been assigned to deploy you to the planet and recover the artifact."
Verten paused for a moment, but before he could begin speaking again Zach asked "Sir, pardon this but doesn't that seem like something you could send regular marines to do?"
Verten stared at Zach for a moment before shaking his head and saying "Normally yes, we wouldn't have even been informed of this, however, there are reports that there is a covenant cruiser nearby and that they have already deployed forces to the planet to capture the artifact for themselves..."
End of Chapter 1.